AA Mechanic Sabotages Plane at MIA 17 Jul 2019, arrested
Sep 7, 2019, 7:47 am
#91
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I read somewhere that he was under financial distress because the union was pressuring him to refuse routine overtime assignments as part of their labor action. That article said he pulled this stunt to try and create some mandatory overtime for himself.
Sep 7, 2019, 7:51 am
#92
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Something about the incident that I hadn't realized before now: The sabotage occurred back in July, but the mechanic who allegedly did it wasn't arrested until this week. That seems scary in that presumably he continued to work on AA aircraft. I hope someone was watching him very carefully during this period.
ADDED: And it gets worse. CNN is claiming that he was previously fired from a mechanic's position at AS. They're not saying why, but they are speculating that maybe he shouldn't have passed background checks so easily after having been fired from another airline.
ADDED: And it gets worse. CNN is claiming that he was previously fired from a mechanic's position at AS. They're not saying why, but they are speculating that maybe he shouldn't have passed background checks so easily after having been fired from another airline.
Last edited by MSPeconomist; Sep 7, 2019 at 2:42 pm
Sep 7, 2019, 3:22 pm
#93
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Sep 7, 2019, 3:50 pm
#94
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"
- In 2005, Alani filed an ASAP report after he entered the wrong code into a maintenance tracking database, according to documents Alaska Airlines entered as evidence. The ERC sent Alani to a "Back-To-Basics" remedial training program, the documents say.
- Also in 2005, he forgot to check required inspection items when finishing a repair, according to the documents. The ERC closed the report without any further action.
- In 2007, Alani made a mistake when installing an altimeter, according to the court documents of the judgement, and he submitted an ASAP report and notified the FAA of the potential safety hazard. Afterward, Alani was given an oral warning and told to attend training sessions again, according to the court documents.
- Also in 2007, he made a mistake while installing a pitot tube, a sensor that helps determine a plane's air speed, according to documents Alaska Airlines entered as evidence. The FAA launched an investigation, while the airline gave Alani a written warning, the documents say.
- Again in 2007, Alani made a mistake when sending a broken part — a Heads-up Guidance System (HGS) — to a mechanic base in Seattle, leading to it being installed in an in-service aircraft, according to the court documents. He received another oral warning and was told that any additional incidents could lead to his termination, the court documents say.
- In 2008, according to additional court documents from Alaska, Alani and another employee accidentally installed the wrong battery on a plane. Alani filed another ASAP report and was told that day that he would be suspended pending an internal investigation, according to the documents. Like with the pitot-tube incident, the FAA opened its own investigation, according to the documents, and two weeks later, Alani was fired.
I don't blame AA for for its labor negotiations for this guy, but I do blame them for not finding what was apparently public information from his lawsuit against AS. Also, wouldn't English fluency be pretty critical for this particular job (and FTR, I am quite left-leaning and definitively not anti-immigration nor do I care if immigrants learn the language of their new country, this is purely a safety issue)? The Miami Herald article said he needed an interpreter in court.
I’d love to hear from airline mechanics - are these type of errors (and frequency) typical?
Last edited by princeville; Sep 7, 2019 at 4:39 pm
Sep 7, 2019, 3:58 pm
#95
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AA has suspended him without pay. I haven't seen any information about how recently this happened, namely after the July incident was discovered, during the investigator, or when he was arrested.
Sep 7, 2019, 4:14 pm
#96
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I don't blame AA for for its labor negotiations for this guy, but I do blame them for not finding what was apparently public information from his lawsuit against AS. Also, wouldn't English fluency be pretty critical for this particular job (and FTR, I am quite left-leaning and definitively not anti-immigration nor do I care if immigrants learn the language of their new country, this is purely a safety issue)? The Miami Herald article said he needed an interpreter in court.
I love to hear from airline mechanics - are these type of errors (and frequency) typical?
Sep 7, 2019, 5:34 pm
#97
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I don't know anything about the contract, but he did in fact lose his mechanic's certificate for 30 days. Presumably, he wouldn't be able to work as for any airline as a mechanic for those 30 days, so there's no way AA didn't know that his competency was highly questionable. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no union contract in the world says that an employee can't be disciplined (including dismissal) for basic incompetence.
Sep 7, 2019, 5:39 pm
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I don't know anything about the contract, but he did in fact lose his mechanic's certificate for 30 days. Presumably, he wouldn't be able to work as for any airline as a mechanic for those 30 days, so there's no way AA didn't know that his competency was highly questionable. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no union contract in the world says that an employee can't be disciplined (including dismissal) for basic incompetence.
......or for being unavailable for normal work duties for a whole month which wasn't previously scheduled for time off (vacation or whatever) and isn't related to a medical condition, etc.
Sep 7, 2019, 5:49 pm
#99
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I don't know anything about the contract, but he did in fact lose his mechanic's certificate for 30 days. Presumably, he wouldn't be able to work as for any airline as a mechanic for those 30 days, so there's no way AA didn't know that his competency was highly questionable. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no union contract in the world says that an employee can't be disciplined (including dismissal) for basic incompetence.
Now the loss of his certificate....that I didn't see and while sensible people would obviously agree that should have been enough to allow AA to do something, union labor laws don't have logic of common sense as core principles. While one would hope that you could use that to fire someone I'd not be the least bit surprised if that wasn't the case..
Sep 7, 2019, 5:59 pm
#100
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Would union rules permit a mechanic to work simultaneously for both AS and AA, with both presumably being full time jobs (plus overtime) at a major airport? Pilots and FAs wouldn't be permitted to moonlight with other carriers and probably wouldn't permit these employees to have outside full time jobs elsewhere either due to fatigue issues.
Sep 7, 2019, 6:08 pm
#101
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Would union rules permit a mechanic to work simultaneously for both AS and AA, with both presumably being full time jobs (plus overtime) at a major airport? Pilots and FAs wouldn't be permitted to moonlight with other carriers and probably wouldn't permit these employees to have outside full time jobs elsewhere either due to fatigue issues.
Sep 7, 2019, 6:11 pm
#102
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I don't know, and it also struck me as extremely odd that he was working for multiple companies at the same time, every employment contract I've ever had included language preventing employment elsewhere absent explicit approval. I would guess that its OK or he had approval as in the lawsuit AS called out the double clock-ins, so it does seem that at least AS was aware that he was working at both companies - though obviously they didn't expect him to be "on the clock" at both simultaneously.
I would have assumed that being on the clock for AA and AS simultaneously would be a fireable offense as it would seem to be proof of outright fraud on the timesheets.
Sep 7, 2019, 6:17 pm
#103
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Agree completely, that should be fireable 1000%, no idea though if it would be under their CBA. Also wonder if AS let AA know about that when they discovered it, as it seems that they found that during his lawsuit and not when it happened.
Sep 7, 2019, 6:19 pm
#104
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Maybe there's a statute of limitations on cheating one's employer in the union contracts?
Sep 8, 2019, 8:57 am
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